Francis Moran - Part 9

Author Archive for Francis Moran

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Twitter: My first impressions

By Francis Moran

As recorded here, I started Tweeting a bit less than a fortnight ago. (Handle is @francismoran, if you’d like to follow me.) Today, I want to come up for air as I barely tread water in the Twitterstream and share a few first impressions.

1. Twitter is the most addictive thing since crystal meth was synthesized, and it has precipitated a massive relapse in my online behaviour.

I am an easily distracted guy at the best of times. So over the past few years, I have instituted some processes in my work life to diminish the potential that my focus on the task at hand will be derailed by incoming emails, news feeds or other bright shiny objects. I turned off all email alerts, stopped using instant messaging services and schedule specific times in my day when I will deal with email, my RSS feed and the like.

Then along came Twitter. At the office, at home, waiting for my Clover at Bridgehead, at the breakfast, lunch and dinner tables, at red lights while driving … hell, almost anywhere and at any time of the day, I MUST check Twitter and see what the ‘Stream is bringing me. It’s obsessive, and I’m actively seeking therapy.

2. Twitter is also incredibly seductive.

I wrote that I intended to use Twitter not as a sort of ersatz IM tool, or as a way to stay in touch with friends, or to post self-promoting updates about what airport I was now landing at. Nope. Twitter, for me, was going to be strictly business. I intended to use it to tweet about things not worth a full blog post, to draw attention to interesting things that came through my RSS reader, to promote great content secured by one of our clients here at inmedia, and to participate in Twitter conversations.

Well, it was that last one that pulled me in. (Right now, I’m channelling Al Pacino’s character in Godfather II.) Before I knew it, I was giving grammar tips, talking about what I’d name my boat if I had one, and, most un-businesslike of all, posting pictures of myself on a Jamaican beach.

3. Twitter has really goosed our blog traffic

It hasn’t all been obsession and personal indulgences, though. While the data points are still relatively few in number, we saw a tidy spike in blog traffic last week, with visitors up about 25 per cent from the weekly average for the previous month, page visits up 80 per cent and a 10-per-cent increase in subscribers. And Twitter has become the third-best source of referral traffic to our blog. All in less than two weeks. Nice.

4. The tools are a bit bewildering

Selecting a Twitter client has been a bewildering exercise. Initially, I started off both reading and posting directly on the Twitter site, hitting F5 every time I wanted a fresh deluge of tweets. Of course, as any member of the Twitterati knows well, there is a plethora of clients that can be installed.

I’ve been testing TweetDeck. It’s okay, but its constant pings are just too demanding on my too-fleeting attention span. Maybe I’ll play around with TweetDeck a bit more and explore its greater functionality but for the moment, I think I’ll continue to use my browser on my desktop.

I’m on my third client for my mobile platform, the iPhone. And it’s here that my obsessiveness really runs amok anyway. I’ve been using the free iStore application TwitterFon for the past several days. I really like the interface, especially how it uses colour to categorize incoming tweets and shows all replies whether or not I follow the person replying. Conversation threads are also very easy to follow. I think I’ll stick with this one. Until a brighter, shinier one catches my eye…

5. @snolen takes the prize for best Twitter Stream this first two weeks

The Globe and Mail‘s excellent Stephanie Nolen, who was recently reassigned from the paper’s Africa bureau to its India bureau, kept up a steady stream of live tweets reporting on the Dalai Lama’s speech to his followers marking yesterday’s 50th anniversary of his flight into exile from Tibet. This is the future, kids.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, inmedia Public Relations, inmedialog, blogging, social media

Rick Mercer plays ringette

By Francis Moran

It might seem odd for this tech-focused blog to be writing about ringette, Canada’s other very cool game played on ice. Believe it or not, however, Ringette Canada was an original inmedia PR client, one for which I had been working for a few years when I founded the agency in 1998.

Another inmedia original was Alayne Martell, who was employee number 3, joining us scant days after we legally incorporated the company. Alayne swiftly assumed responsibility for the ringette account and, when she and inmedia parted ways a few years back, we agreed it made most sense that she take that account along with her.

Alayne being the phenomenal media relations practitioner she is, she has built up the account and continues to provide incredible service to the Canadian — and, periodically, even the international — ringette community notwithstanding that she lives on tiny Brier Island off the very tip of Digby Neck in her native Nova Scotia.

Alayne told me a few days ago about a terrific media hit for the sport and I promised her I would blog about it here. The CBC’s resident funny man and political satirist Rick Mercer suited up last month with the Cambridge Turbos of the National Ringette League and the piece will run on The Rick Mercer Report tonight at 8 p.m., repeating on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Maybe the only thing in Canada faster than Mercer’s mouth when he’s doing one of his famous rants is a ringette player closing in on the net. Tune in; it should be a hoot.

Technorati Tags: Ringette, Rick Mercer, Alayne Martell, media relations

We’re now Twits!

By Francis Moran

When we launched this blog about 18 months ago, I blamed congenital social media addict Alec Saunders for persuading me that I and my colleagues here at inmedia PR had enough to say that we should be blogging. Nothing we’ve seen in the time since would persuade me he was wrong; our blog has hugely increased our online presence, vastly boosted the ratings for our corporate web site, and both brought us interesting business opportunities and helped validate our expertise on others.

Now we take the next step. Twitter.

And, as I wrote in my very first Tweet, if Saunders is to blame for making me a blogger, then Scott Lake has to take responsibility for making me a Twit. Scott has been pushing me to join the twitterati for a while now, and last week, I did. You can follow me at @francismoran. The tipping point for me was this blog post from the folks at Velocity about how they use many different social media tools, including Twitter, to gain the greatest possible leverage for good pieces of content they generate for their clients.

Now, much as I like to claim to be an early adopter, I’m not terribly early to this particular party. In fact, I’m not even the first person at inmedia to start a Twitter account. That honour belongs to my colleague Linda Forrest (@lforrestinmedia), who wrote her first update in May last year and has been a bit more active while on maternity leave. (We all know that first-time Mums with months-old babies have oodles of time on their hands, right Linda?)

Scott has promised to drop by and give me a crash course in how to make the most of this interesting social media tool. For my part, I think I’ll use it for all the quick comments that seem to occur to me in the course of a week, things insufficiently detailed or profound to warrant a full blog post. We’ll also add a tool to this blog that automatically issues a tweet when we write a new post. I’ll tweet about other posts I read in my hundreds-deep RSS feed, participate in some of the conversations that are going in the twittersphere and, like Velocity, draw the broader web’s attention to some of our clients’ successful content generation.

As with our blog, we’ll keep you posted on how this goes. As a newbie, though, I’d be keen to hear from readers who have had good or bad experiences with Twitter, and how you use it.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, media relations, social media, Alec Saunders, Scott Lake

Two inmedia clients among OCRI awards finalists

By Francis Moran

Two inmedia clients, PIKA Technologies Inc. and Vocantas Inc., are finalists in two different categories of the 2009 OCRI Awards. Interestingly, both work with advanced voice technologies.

PIKA, a developer of media-processing hardware and software, made the cut in the Product of the Year category while Vocantas, which develops advanced interactive voice-response systems, is a finalist for Technology Commercialization Partnership.

We’ll be cheering on these favoured finalists and all the outstanding Ottawa companies that will be waiting for the envelope at the OCRI Awards Gala April 8.

Technorati Tags: OCRI Awards, PIKA, Vocantas

The start-up Scotts of Ottawa take it on the road

By Francis Moran

Ottawa’s two start-up Scotts — I refer to their common first name, not their nationality, which would be spelled with just one ‘t’ — are in the middle of a six-city, two-country roadtrip to visit co-working spaces in each city and to spin the gospel according to Dex, the nifty CRM application now in beta from one Scott’s (Annan, that is) development company, Mercury Grove. The other Scott (Lake, that is) recently launched his own social media consulting firm and has been working on Dex with Annan.

The pair have been posting regular updates, including videos, at StartupOttawa. Besides catching Annan in the no-no act of texting while driving, the videos show co-working spaces in Ottawa, Montréal and Toronto, and report on the feedback Annan has been receiving for his new product. Next week should see reports from New York, Boston and Philadelphia.

Go down the road with these guys; it’s an interesting ride.

Technorati Tags: coworking, startups, Scott Annan, Mercury Grove, Dex, Scott Lake, ThinkSM

‘It’s just unbelievable how far customer service can go.’

By Francis Moran

The quote in my headline comes from a beautiful little story that is warming the hearts of Canadians today. Jorma Hogbacka was a regular customer at the Tim Hortons coffee shop in his hometown St. Catherines. Apparently, he had a colourful way about him, part of which was to ask the coffee shop staff to help him pick his lottery numbers, with Jorma promising to share any winnings with them.

Well, Jorma won. Big time. His was one of three winning tickets in Saturday’s $43-million jackpot, netting the retired welder a tidy $14.8-million.

And his instant millionaire status did not cause him to forget his promise. True to his word, yesterday he handed a $30,000 cheque to former Tim Hortons staffer Melissa Grivich, who, according to the Globe and Mail, now works as a police officer. And Jorma is working with the iconic Canadian coffee chain to find four other employees he says are on his list to receive similar big tips for past performance.

I’m writing about this because I constantly harp on customer service and how it can be a sharp, effective and sustainable competitive advantage in a world where commodity pricing and reverse engineering rapidly erode any other leg up a company might initially have in the market place. And even though she is a paramount example of how things should be, the newly-enriched Melissa Grivich doesn’t think she did anything special.

“It was my job. I was serving coffee. It wasn’t the greatest job in the world, but I made the best of it,” the Globe quotes her as saying. “It’s just unbelievable how far customer service can go.”

‘Nuff said, Melissa. ‘Nuff said.

Technorati Tags: Customer service, Tim Hortons, Jorma Hogbacka, lottery

Why is a startup like murder?

By Francis Moran

Why is a startup like murder? Well, according to two-time start-up veteran Shawn Griffin, it’s not because the long hours and uncertain outcome will kill you. Rather, as he told an assembly of alumni of OCRI‘s popular Entrepreneur’s Edge educational program last night, both murder and startups require the same three elements.

“Motive, opportunity and ability are essential for murder and also for a startup,” said Griffin, who delivered a two-fold return to investors when he sold his first company a mere five months after launching it but saw his second venture go down “in a very painful manner.”

The motive to start a new technology company must come from passion, he said, while the opportunity lies in identifying a real pain in the marketplace that the new company is going to solve.

As for ability, it “boils down to two things, people and money. The good news about today is that there’s a dearth of money but a wealth of good people.”

Griffin was speaking at the first-ever reunion for alumni of Entrepreneur’s Edge, a popular educational program that brings seasoned entrepreneurs and subject-matter experts in to deliver course material to participants. The next session of the program, now in its fourth year, runs from February 9 to 13.

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurs Edge, startups, Shawn Griffin

Attention software company CEOs: Boost your PR investment to survive downturn

By Francis Moran

Okay, I’m sure that headline reads like a naked sales pitch for our services here at inmedia Public Relations. And while it most certainly self-serves that function, it’s actually one of 18 tips on sales and marketing to help you recession-proof your software company published last week on softwareCEO.com. (I’m indebted to my good friend Jason Flick for bringing this article to my attention.)

We have consistently advocated that companies that maintain — or even increase — their market presence during a downturn emerge from the downturn stronger than their competitors and in a position to springboard into the new opportunities that the eventual recovery will bring. So it’s no surprise to us to hear other sales and marketing professionals echo that sentiment.

The softwareCEO.com piece, the second in a series that also includes 18 tips on finance and operations, is full of terrific advice. Within the piece on boosting your PR investment, it cites software marketing expert Judy Schramm of JMR Consulting and three low-cost ways in which your PR presence can be boosted. (We’ve been doing all three for some time now.)

I also liked the sales tips it outlined and I wasn’t surprised to see they came from Steve Kraner of Sandler Sales Institute. We’ve worked in the past with Sandler’s Ottawa-based sales-training guru, Terry Ledden who advocates that rather than trying to compete with other salespeople on price or feature set, you differentiate yourself from the outset by employing a highly consultative approach that helps you develop a thorough understanding of the prospect’s pain and the willingness the prospect has to address that pain.

I don’t know how many times over the past few months I’ve heard seasoned technology entrepreneurs say that downturns represent an opportunity, not a setback. The tough operating conditions wash the marginal players out of your way, force you to focus on where you create real value, and both reduce the cost and increase the impact of raising your voice in your marketplace.

Update: My Google Reader just fed me a post from the excellent Out of the Fog Marketing blog drawing attention to a Knowledge@Wharton article in Forbes titled, “Don’t skimp on ad budgets.”

Technorati Tags: Marketing in a downturn, public relations, software marketing, softwareCEO.com, JMR Consulting, Sandler Sales Institute

A Christmas gift for Lesotho

By Francis Moran

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I spent four childhood Christmases in Lesotho, the tiny mountain kingdom in southern Africa where my father worked for the country’s newly independent government. I have vivid memories of our very first Christmas there, which came scant weeks after we first landed in this strange new land. So I know first-hand that several things we take for granted at this time of year simply don’t happen in Lesotho, a country that struggled with poverty and chronic drought when we lived there and whose problems have been endlessly compounded since then by the ravages of HIV and AIDS.

The most obvious difference at Christmas time is that it is hot and sunny in Lesotho, not cold and snowy. Contrary to many people’s imagined vision of Africa, however, it does get extremely cold and snowy in Lesotho during its winter since the country lies at 5,000 feet above sea level and higher. Being in the southern hemisphere, Lesotho’s winter corresponds with our summer, and vice versa.

The next most obvious difference is that very few families in Lesotho will be tucking in to a feast of good food following a frenzied burst of present openings this, or any, Christmas morning. Many families will be led by the oldest child, or a surviving grandparent as AIDS has cut a swath through a generation of parents and wage-earners. And while most will take time to celebrate with joyous song and dance the religious aspects of Christmas in this deeply devout nation of church-goers, very few will be able to join in the secular aspects that, for most of us, now take precedence.

This childhood connection to Lesotho and an awareness that this tiny nation of incredibly resilient and warmhearted people was bearing a disproportionate share of the burden of HIV and AIDS led me a few years ago to look into a unique Canadian charity, Help Lesotho. We have supported Help Lesotho and its unstoppable dynamo of a founder and director, Peg Hebert, ever since. Through the year, we use our media relations skills and do what we can to help Peg spread her message of hope, and at Christmas we forego sending cards and gift baskets to our clients and colleagues in favour of giving the money to Help Lesotho. We will do so again this year.

But I also want to draw the attention of our Ottawa readers to a fundraising sale of Christmas gift items that Help Lesotho will be holding at its offices over the next couple of weeks. Here you can buy one-of-a-kind gifts that will not only delight their recipients but will also help Peg and her team continue their work. You can see a full catalogue of the items on offer here, and the sale itself will be held at Help Lesotho’s offices at the Keller Williams Building, 610 Bronson Avenue (just north of the Queensway) from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 4; Friday, December 5 and Friday December 12; and from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, December 6.

For those of you not in Ottawa, the same gifts can be bought and the same contribution made to Help Lesotho by clicking on the link in the previous paragraph and shopping online.

Technorati Tags: Help Lesotho, Christmas gifts

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Easymarketing : Entrepreneurship has become a way of life for those who creatively and innovatively make good use of informative research and ideas that are offered in the i...

David J. French : Good observations. Good example. Once you switch from lean to rich living, it is hard to go back. Ask any student.

Nick Stamoulis : It's important to look at what your competitors are doing, but not copy them completely. Just because they are doing something, doesn't mean that they are r...

Nick Stamoulis : Developing a social media community before launch is a good strategy because it's a way to get people excited about the upcoming product or service. Since n...

Alexandra Reid : I'm glad you found it useful, Emily. These roundups are a new initiative, and so it's great to hear feedback. - Alex.

Emily : Good day Alex, thanks for sharing this list of resources it really helps especially the "When IT meets marketing" article. Cheers!

Francis Moran & Associates — We bring technology to market

We Bring Technology To Market

Author Archive for Francis Moran

Rick Mercer plays ringette

Two inmedia clients among OCRI awards finalists

The start-up Scotts of Ottawa take it on the road

‘It’s just unbelievable how far customer service can go.’

Why is a startup like murder?

Attention software company CEOs: Boost your PR investment to survive downturn

A Christmas gift for Lesotho

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